I am unsure of where this phenomenon came from.

We live in a generation where young women have become obsessed and absolutely consumed with this persona that emanates from their Instagram account. Celebrities like Kylie Jenner have fueled this ridiculous trend, and it has spread like wildfire. There is this impossible image that women feel an unbelievable amount of pressure to conform to. There is an irrational desire for acceptance that is reliant on the amount of likes a picture gets. It is superficial, it is unnecessary, it is an issue that needs to be addressed.

Ladies, exit out of the editing apps and tune in for a long overdue reality check.

The Standard:

A flat tummy with abs, big lips colored with dark lipstick, long hair, slim waist, curvaceous hips and a big, round butt. Made possible by angles, filters, and editing apps.

First and foremost, this trend is absurd. We have all become so consumed in this standard that has been forced upon us, that we have become desensitized to the immense issues that have come as a result. I wish to put an end to this ignorance we have been living in. Let's first just take a glance at what this trend has become. Women see pictures like this:

and instantly feel inferior. It is an impossible image to imitate. We don't have the money, glam team, resources, or editing capabilities that Kylie Jenner has at her finger tips. Regardless, we try our best to follow in her footsteps. Women download multiple editing apps to perfect their face and bodies, and spend a ridiculous amount of time applying filters and tweaking every little aspect of the picture. It is an insatiable obsession. Women will save several different options of their selfies, send them to their friends, and scrutinize every little part of the picture. I want to put an end to this madness. Ladies, stop wasting your time! You may think you are bettering yourself with the image you are putting out there, but in reality you are selling yourself short. You are settling. You are compromising. Compromising what? You may ask. The answer: your entire concept and perception of your own self worth. You are stripping yourself of your right to establish your own definition of self worth, and you are settling for society's corrupt version. You are better than that, and there are better, bigger, more important things to concern yourself with than stressing over how you look on Instagram.

The huge reality check sets in when you stop to consider the fact that we value our appearance on Instagram more than we value experiences. We ruin the opportunity to experience life and adventures to the fullest out of the effort to get the perfect picture. It's almost as if we don't even care about the actual experience anymore, we only care about the image and caption we can get out of it. How superficial is that? You are limiting yourself. You are depriving yourself. You are selling yourself short. You aren't living for yourself. On the contrary, you are participating in a huge facade that gives the illusion that you are living in a manner that you are not. You make things appear greater than what they are because you are not making the effort to make things truly great. Instead, you settle for experiencing life on a superficial level. Don't settle.

News Flash: Being a "bad bitch" isn't the only standard of being sexy.

Don't be something you're not. Instagram gives you the platform to present yourself in any way that you want. The opportunities in that concept are endless, and people have taken advantage of that to produce negative outcomes. There is no diversity. Everyone is striving for that "bad bitch" image. The dark lipstick, long nails, sultry pose image. Don't pose as something you're not. Be your own definition of sexy. Redefine society's standard of desirability.

Personally, I want to know when intelligence stopped being sexy. I want to know when being a "bad bitch" took precedence over taking beautiful pictures that capture your beautiful and precious moments in life. I want to know when that fake image became more important than feeling beautiful and comfortable in your own skin. I myself became engulfed in this. I got the long, fake nails. I became obsessed with Michael Kors everything, and I wanted to flaunt it in my pictures. I put the dark lipstick on, I winged my eyeliner, contoured my face, I spent longer than I should have picking a filter on my selfies. I even concerned myself with pairing my pictures with strictly rap lyrics in the great effort to change my good girl image. I had always been the girl who didn't wear a lot of makeup, and somehow got lost along the way and transformed into the girl who became obsessed with trying to fit this bad bitch image. Well, secret's out. I'm not a "bad bitch." I never was, despite my attempt to appear as though I was on my Instagram. I am not defeated, because I am so much more than that. I have grown to the realization that that image means nothing. You can't put that on your resume, and contrary to popular belief, it isn't all that desirable. Real men will admire a woman who has her life together, who has aspirations along with the ambition to accomplish those goals. When you present yourself as something you're not, you attract people who don't appreciate your true beauty. You attract people who have poor intentions as a result of the false image you have portrayed yourself to be on social media. Be true to yourself, because if you are deceitful, you will welcome deceitful people into your life, and there is no bigger waste of your time than entertaining someone who intends to deceive you, or in turn, deceiving someone else and wasting their precious time.

Define your own standard of self worth. Redefine society's perception of what is sexy. Don't allow your Instagram to be a tool to falsely present yourself, but instead, use it to capture your beauty, your thoughts, interests, and your life for what it truly is. At the end of the day, how many likes you get on a photo means nothing. It is irrelevant, it is senseless, it is trivial in the grand scheme of life. You have more important things to concern yourself with than impressing people on Instagram, remember that.